Friday, February 3, 2012

One thing is for sure, the developing protest movement in
Russia is taking some interesting turns, case in point the all-female punk
outfit called Pussy Riot, who have gained a fair bit of notoriety in recent
months thanks to a series of impromptu performances and biting lyrics aimed
squarely at Vladimir Putin.

The Guardian published this fairly in-depth piece
about Pussy Riot, which acts more like a collective rather than a band, and
whose members strive for total anonymity – wearing brightly colored balaclavas during performances and interviews to hide their
faces.Their most recent, and boldest, show
was two weeks ago on a platform in front of the iconic St. Basil's Cathedral
across from the Kremlin where they sang: “revolt in Russia – the
charisma of protest / revolt in Russia, Putin's got scared!” – quite a change
from just a few years ago when a Russian girl pop band sand about how they
wanted “a man like Putin!” Pussy Riot
also sang atop the jail holding blogger and one of the de facto heads of
the Russian protest movement, Alexey Navalny, after
his arrest during the massive street protests on December 4; their lyrics that
night included the lines: “death to prison / freedom to protest!”

According to The Guardian, the average age of the
members of Pussy Riot is 25, they describe themselves as feminists and say that
most studied the humanities in college.What I found really interesting though – beyond the mere idea of a
feminist punk protest collective in Russia – is that they seem fairly savvy
about the American punk/alternative scene from the 1990s.Pussy Riot cited the iconic alternative act
Sonic Youth as one of their references, along with Bikini Kill, a 90's-era,
all-female punk outfit based out of Olympia, Washington who were one of the
driving forces of the “riot grrrl” movement.The lyrics in riot grrrl typically have a feminist bent, while the bands
take on an in-your-face attitude.It
seems a good match for Pussy Riot's approach, it’s just surprising when you
consider that the main influence on most contemporary female Russian bands are
saccharine Europop outfits and that when riot grrrl was having its heyday,
Pussy Riot's members were about eight years old and living on the other side of
the globe.

Pussy Riot say they plan to continue protesting, noting the
historic role that women have played in Russia's many political upheavals. “There's a deep tradition in Russia of gender and revolution
– we've had amazing women revolutionaries,” said a member of Pussy Riot, who in
the spirit of anonymity went only by the name of Garazhda.

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Why A World View? Because I was frustrated by the lack of international news coverage in the American press. Sadly, foreign events usually only make the news when there’s a war or natural disaster someplace. But the world is more interconnected than ever, what happens on the other side of the globe can have a direct affect on your life. So I started this site to cover some of these stories missed by the mainstream media, and to provide analysis and context to others. And my goal is to do it in a way that you don’t feel like you need a PhD degree to understand what’s going on.